Service provider system and method for marketing programs

ABSTRACT

To assist in patent searching a description includes a consumer purchasing behavior profiling system having aspects including consumer profiles formed and updated based on a variety of data. Advertisers access to send targeted advertising messages to the consumers. Aspects include advertising information together with incentive level and mix being correlated with the consumer profile to produce a measure of the applicability of the ad to that consumer and the probability of converting that consumer. Other aspects include determining the mix of ad information, incentive level and type, and product offering that will be required to convert an ad viewer to a buyer. Aspects focus on using wireless devices with consumers. Other aspects reside in methods of using electronic coupons distribution and redemption to collect additional data points necessary to understand the consumer&#39;s purchasing decision process and factors that influence the purchasing decision.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/801,697, filed Nov. 2, 2017, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/142,916, filed May 31, 2005, which the benefitof and priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/575,779,filed May 28, 2004, the entire disclosure of each of which is herebyincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The advent of the Internet has resulted in the ability to communicatedata across the globe instantaneously, and will allow for numerous newapplications which enhance consumer's lives. One of the enhancementswhich can occur is the ability for the consumer to receive advertisingwhich is relevant to their lifestyle, rather than a stream of adsdetermined by the program they are watching. Such “targeted ads” canpotentially reduce the amount of unwanted information which consumersreceive in the mail, during television programs, and when using theInternet.

From an advertiser's perspective the ability to target ads can bebeneficial since they have some confidence that their ad will at leastbe determined relevant by the consumer, and therefore will not be foundannoying because it is not applicable to their lifestyle.

In order to determine the applicability of an advertisement to aconsumer, it is necessary to know something about their lifestyle, andin particular to understand their demographics (age, household size,income). In some instances it is useful to know their particularpurchasing habits. As an example, a vendor of soups would like to knowwhich consumers are buying their competitor's soup, so that they cantarget ads at those consumers in an effort to convince them to switchbrands. That vendor will probably not want to target loyal customers,although for a new product introduction the strategy may be to convinceloyal customers to try the new product. In both cases it is extremelyuseful for the vendor to be able to determine what brand of product theconsumer presently purchases.

There are several difficulties associated with the collection,processing, and storage of consumer data. Collecting consumer data anddetermining the demographic parameters of the consumer can be difficult.Surveys can be performed, and in some instances the consumer willwillingly give access to normally private data including family size,age of family members, and household income. If the consumer does notprovide this data directly, the information must be “mined” from variouspieces of information which are gathered about the consumer, typicallyfrom specific purchases.

Coupons are heavily used as a marketing tool by manufacturers to gainbetter understanding of consumer purchasing behavior. Coupons arenormally distributed to consumers through any one of a number ofdifferent channels, including newspapers as Free Standing Insert (FSI)coupons, advertising circulars, direct mailings, e-mail, and theinternet. To redeem a coupon, a consumer must present the coupon inconnection with the purchase of a product identified on the coupon at aretail establishment. The retailer, upon receiving the coupon, willdeduct the face value of the coupon from the total amount owed by theconsumer.

Manufacturers generally require retailers to provide the originalredeemed coupons along with invoices for reimbursement. Retailerstypically bundle redeemed coupons and ship them to third partyclearinghouses, which sort the redeemed coupons by product manufacturer.The sorted coupons, together with the retailer invoices, are thenshipped to a manufacturer's agent. The manufacturer's agent, which couldbe a clearinghouse, attempts to determine whether the invoice amount issupported by the redeemed coupons. The manufacturer's agent may issue acheck to the retailer through the clearinghouse as reimbursement for thevalue of the coupons verified by the agent as genuine. Any invoicedamount that is not adequately supported by the provided original couponswill not be paid by the manufacturer or its agent. In a normalprocessing cycle, retailers usually do not receive reimbursement checksuntil six to eight weeks after the original coupons were redeemed.Redemption of manufacturer coupons requires retailers to forego receiptof full coupon value for items purchased using a coupon for asignificant period of time.

The disadvantages of traditional method of coupon processing include notonly significant time delay but also ability to measure theeffectiveness of marketing campaign in a timely manner. For instance,manufacturers cannot precisely determine whether a recent salespromotion program has contributed to a bona fide product sale, becausetraditional methods of coupon redemption do not correlate a specificproduct sale to each specific redeemed coupon at the time of redemptionat a retail store. Additionally, coupons are often bundled together byretail chain rather than by a particular retail outlet, thus,manufacturers receive no information regarding the date and place ofredemption or the precise products or product configuration purchased inconnection with the redemption of the coupon. Manufacturers have only ageneral idea of the volume of product sales expected for particularretail chains.

Most of today's coupons are delivered to consumers as printed offers innewspapers and magazines, Free Standing Insert (FSI) in newspapers,components in direct mail advertising programs. They are also given toconsumers in stores or are attached to or placed inside productpackaging. Typically, the consumer must cut out the coupons, sort them,and present the individual pieces of paper for redemption at the time ofpurchase. At the point of purchase, each coupon must further be checkedto verify that it has not expired. Consumers find coupons to be morehassle than they are worth. Detached or detachable coupons are unkemptand clutter one's pockets or pocket book. Additionally, consumers findthat coupons are unorganized and that desired coupons are difficult tofind when needed such as when checking out. The disorganized nature ofcoupons also makes it difficult to keep track of valid coupons such ascoupons which have not expired.

Coupons are also used by the entertainment industry to increase ticketsales. The entertainment industry issues over 250 million tickets everyyear. Over 55% of these tickets went unsold. In today's environment,venue sponsors and event promoters have limited ability to sell ticketswithin 48 hours prior to the start of the show/event. To make matterworse, artists and performers usually don't allow venue sponsors andevent promoters to publicly announce that, one, tickets are stillavailable and, two, discount the ticket price.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S)

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a marketing system.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a coupon redemption system.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart for a method of campaign creation.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart for a method of inter-enterprise marketing.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart for a method regarding a universal identificationtag.

FIGS. 6A and 6B together depict a flow chart for a method for consumerbehavior data collection.

FIG. 7 is a schematic of a ticket purchasing system.

FIG. 8 is a schematic of a mobile cookie application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Consumer purchasing behavior profiling system is presented in whichconsumer profiles are formed and updated based on a variety of datapoints, including demographic data, psychographic data, life styleaffinity, brand affinity, product preferences, real-time responses toadvertising messages, past purchases, use of coupon and discount offers,price sensitivity, and market trends. Purchase records, use of couponand discount offers, and the process by which the consumer goes throughto select the coupons are collected and transmitted in near real-time tothe consumer profiling system. These data are used to further analyzethe consumer purchasing decision process. The consumer profiling systemcan be accessed by advertisers who wish to send targeted advertisingmessages to the consumers. Advertising information together withincentive level and mix are correlated with the consumer profile toproduce a measure of the applicability of the ad to that consumer andthe probability of converting that consumer. The advantage of the systemlies in its ability to determine the mix of ad information, incentivelevel and type, and product offering that will be required to convert anad viewer to a buyer. The system can be used to increase theeffectiveness and cost efficiency of marketing campaigns. The systemfocuses on using wireless devices as the main communication media withthe consumer. The system further resides in a method of using electroniccoupons distribution and redemption to collect additional data pointsnecessary to understand the consumer's purchasing decision process andfactors that influence the purchasing decision.

Recent advancement of wireless devices such as mobile phones has openedup another channel for advertisers to communicate one-to-one withconsumers. Due to the natural personal use of wireless devices,advertising messages on wireless devices can be fine tuned so that theyare relevant, personalized, and anticipated to the individual consumers.

It would be advantageous to consumers, retailers, and manufacturers touse the wireless coupon distribution and redemption system. The systemcan reduce or eliminate the printing of paper coupons, the accountingfor the coupons, the handling of the coupons, the waste associated withless than three percent of all distributed coupons being used, andcoupon fraud. The consumers receive convenience of always-availabletargeted coupons, financial savings, and transaction efficiency. Foradvertisers and manufacturers, it can provide greater understanding ofconsumer purchasing behavior and more flexible marketing capability.Manufacturers and advertisers don't have to wait for months to receivecoupon redemption data. The wireless coupon distribution and redemptioncan cut down the coupon distribution cycle from four weeks down to aslittle as one day and coupon redemption clearing cycle from eight weeksdown to as little as two days. This allows the manufacturers to launchmore incentive programs with shorter coupon life and marketing campaigncycle, allowing much more flexible marketing campaign. The system alsoallows manufacturers to make immediate adjustment to promotion programscurrently underway in order to achieve the desired marketing effect. Themain benefit to retailers and grocery chains is the reduction in time tocollect money from manufacturers for the value of the redeemed coupons.

As described in FIG. 1, Consumer Goods & Services companies 110 caninclude manufacturers of consumer goods, hospitality service provider,artist, advertisers, event promoters, venue sponsors, and other consumerservice providers. Retailers 105 can include grocery stores, venueowners, stadium, theater, retail stores, and event venues.

Retailers 125 can include grocery stores, venue owners, stadium,theater, retail stores, and event venues. The difference betweenretailers 105 and retailers 125 is that retailers 105 include those whoparticipate in inter-enterprise marketing program with Consumer Goods &Services companies 110. Retailers 125 do not participate ininter-enterprise marketing program with Consumer Goods & Servicescompanies 110.

Discount & incentive programs 120 refer to marketing and incentiveprograms offered by a single Consumer Goods & Services company 110.Discount & incentive programs 130 refer to joint marketing and incentiveprograms offered by several Consumer Goods & Services companies 110.Discount & incentive programs 140 refer to joint marketing and incentiveprograms offered by one or more Consumer Goods & Services company 110and one or more retailer 105.

Membership Service Provider 200 refers to the entity providing serviceof distributing electronic coupons, discount offers, advertisingmessages, and ticket information to consumers and clearing transactionsincluding coupon redemption clearing and ticket purchase fulfillment.Full description of membership service provider 200 will be apparentwhen reading the body of this document. Consumers 160 can include peoplewho own or have access to wireless communication device like mobilephone or personal digital assistant.

Agents and clearinghouses 170 of Consumer Goods and Services companies110 refers to an organization that process coupon clearing for theConsumer Goods & Services companies 110. The agents and clearinghouses170 can be either independent coupon clearinghouses or departmentswithin the Consumer Goods and Services companies 110.

At a high level, the process works as follows:

Step 1, consumers 160 submit personal profile data.

Step 2, Consumer Goods & Services (CG & S) companies 110 createsincentive programs 130. Consumer Goods and Services companies 110 canalso team up with other Consumer Goods and Services companies 110 and/orretailers 105 to create inter-enterprise joint marketing programs 140.

Step 3, Consumer Goods and Services companies 110 and/or retailers 105tap into membership service provider's Consumer Purchasing BehaviorProfiling system 202 to determine the potential conversion rate for thatparticular incentive program.

Step 4, membership service provider's Consumer Purchasing BehaviorProfiling system 202 provides preliminary data on potentialeffectiveness of marketing program back to Consumer Goods and Servicescompanies 110 and/or retailers 105.

Step 5, Consumer Goods and Services companies 110 and/or retailers 105adjust incentives as necessary to achieve target conversion rate.

Step 6, Consumer Goods and Services companies 110 and/or retailers 105repeat step 3.

Step 7, Consumer Goods and Services companies 110 and/or retailers 105submit final revised incentive program and marketing campaign tomembership service provider's Consumer Purchasing Behavior Profilingsystem 202.

Step 8, membership service provider's Consumer Purchasing BehaviorProfiling system 202 sends notification of private sales and discountoffers to consumers 160.

Step 9, consumers 160 can optionally “clip” the electronic coupons andsend the “selected” coupon to the membership service provider 200.

Step 10, membership service provider's Consumer Purchasing BehaviorProfiling system 202 sends discount offer data (previously sent to theconsumers) to retailers 125.

Step 11, consumers buy products at retail store and redeem electroniccoupons.

Step 12, retailers 125 send coupon redemption data to membership serviceprovider's Consumer Purchasing Behavior Profiling system 202.

Step 13, membership service provider's Consumer Purchasing BehaviorProfiling system 202 updates its consumer purchasing behavior databasesystem with real-time purchasing event data.

Step 14, membership service provider's Consumer Purchasing BehaviorProfiling system 202 sends data on coupon redemption activities andeffectiveness of marketing program to Consumer Goods and Servicescompanies 110 and/or retailers 105.

Step 15, retailers can optionally 125 send coupon redemption data toagents and clearinghouses 170 of Consumer Goods and Services companies110. In some cases, the clearinghouses are independent couponclearinghouses. In other cases, the clearinghouses are departmentswithin the Consumer Goods and Services companies.

Step 16, agents and clearinghouses 170 of Consumer Goods and Servicescompanies verify coupon redemption and reimburse retailers.

Step 17, in situations where agents and clearinghouses of Consumer Goodsand Services companies are independent coupon clearinghouses, the agentsand clearinghouses 170 will send invoices to Consumer Goods and Servicescompanies 110 and/or retailers 105.

Step 18, retailers 125 and membership service provider 200 will receivepayment for the value of the redeemed coupon and coupon redemptionservices, respectively. In the situation where agents and clearinghouses170 of Consumer Goods and Services companies are independentclearinghouses, the agents and clearinghouses 170 are responsible forcollecting the money from Consumer Goods and Services and paying theretailers 125 and membership service provider 200. In other situations,the Consumer Goods and Service companies 110 pay the retailers 125 andmembership service provider 200 directly.

First Implementation

The present invention focuses on using coupon redemption to build aConsumer Purchasing Behavior Profiling system.

As described in FIGS. 2 and 5, the process begins with the consumers 255who join a paperless product discount membership and are provided withan individualized membership identification (ID) tag 550. The consumers255 can include people who own or user of wireless communication device,like mobile phone, personal digital assistant, wireless-communicationenabled computers, and pager. As described in FIG. 5, the membershiptags can include a uniquely identifiable code and/or a memory storagemechanism, like Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or micropaymentdevices or barcode or other means known by those versed in the currentart, which contains the consumer's membership information. The tag canhave adhesive material on one side such that it can be “taped” onto acredit-card size plastic card or on the back of a wireless communicationdevice like the mobile phone. The membership tag can also be in anelectronic format like an electronic image of a barcode that can bedisplayed on a wireless device like mobile phone or Personal DigitalAssistant (PDA).

As described in FIG. 2, the consumers 255 provide personal profile dataas a condition of joining the membership. The profile can includedemographic data, psychographic data, life style affinity, brandaffinity, and product preferences. Demographic data can include address,age, gender, income, household information, number of cars, housinginformation, etc. Psychographic data include hobbies, areas of interest,etc. Life style affinity can include leisure activities, entertainmentpreferences, etc. Brand affinity can include names of products and/ormanufacturers that the consumers want to receive advertising messagesfrom. Product affinity can include types of product the consumers hadpurchased in the past, are considering buying, or want to learn moreabout. Consumers can provide these data via internet, fax, interactivevoice response (IVR), web-enabled wireless communication devices likemobile phones or PDA, or other communication means by those well versedin the art.

It should be noted that herein the term “profiles”, is used to indicatea database of all data stored in the consumer purchasing behaviordatabase. Further, for convenience, reference is made to grocery stores,however any type of retail or wholesale store or service or sportingvenue can take advantage of the system. Also for convenience, referencesare made to manufacturers, however any type of consumer goods andservices companies and/or advertisers can take advantage of the system.Additionally, for convenience, reference is made to mobile phones,however any type of wireless communication device likewireless-communication enabled computers, personal digital assistant(PDA), pager, or Black Berry text pager can be used to receiveelectronic coupons. The membership provider's centralized computer canhave the following components: Advertising Content database 225,Consumer Profile database 220, Consumer Purchasing Behavior Analyticsystem 202, data warehouse, matching engine 215, mobile applicationsuite 232, and Mobile Cookie application 230.

The Advertising Content database 225 can store data including thefollowing: product information, price, discount level, type of discount,start date, expiration date, target consumer, dynamic pricinginstruction, probabilistic conversion rate, maximum number of use,personalized advertising message, personalized content/image, andparticipating retail stores. An example of dynamic pricing can include“give consumer an additional $50 off the item if consumer views the adbut does not select the coupon”.

The Consumer Profile database 220 can store data including thefollowing: demographic, psychographic, brand affinity, product affinity,life style affinity, purchasing decision process, purchased products(including brand, size, frequency, type), coupon used (discount level,product information, date of use), and historical responses to targetedads.

Consumer Purchasing Behavior Analytic system 202 can include of 1) anadaptive neural networks engine 205 to analyze the consumer purchasingbehavior and purchasing decision making process and 2) an experts system210 to calculate the probabilistic conversion rate of the specificincentive program. The adaptive neural networks engine 205 can implementan industry well-known feed-forward-back-propagation model or similarmodel well-known by those versed in the current art. The experts system210 can implement industry well-known techniques of “Reasoning UnderUncertainty” or similar model well-known by those versed in the currentart.

The matching engine 215 can use a heuristic matching technique to matchthe consumer profiles to the consumer profile filtering conditionsspecified in the incentive program provided by the manufacturers (oradvertisers) 270. This matching engine 215 can be used by themanufacturers (or advertisers) 270 to select the consumer group 255 whocan receive the coupons. An example of profile filtering condition caninclude “provide this discount offer to consumers whose ages are between18-25, income range from $30,000-$50,000, have two cars, own a house,and buy Campbell soup at least once a month”.

The Mobile Cookie application 230 (see the third embodiment) can be asmall program that can be deployed onto the mobile phones. The MobileCookie application is designed to collect the consumers' responses totargeted ads and send this data back to the membership service providerfor profiling purposes. The Mobile Cookie can be a program deployed inthe Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card of Global System for Mobilecommunications (GSM) phones or a small program on the Wideband CodeDivision Multiple Access (WCDMA) chip or a small subroutine that isembedded in the interactive mobile coupon application sent to theconsumers' wireless communication device. The mobile application suite232 can include Mobile Coupon Distribution application 235, MobileCoupon Search application 245, and Mobile Coupon Redemption applications240.

As described in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, the manufacturers (or advertisers) 270can periodically upload the service provider's Advertising Contentdatabase 225 with current product discounts. The manufacturers (oradvertisers) can create marketing campaigns, advertising programs, andincentive programs 120. For each incentive program 120, themanufacturers (or advertisers) will provide incentive program dataincluding the following: product information, price, discount level,type of discount, start date, expiration date, target consumer profilefiltering conditions, dynamic pricing instruction, maximum number ofuse, personalized advertising message, personalized content/image, andparticipating retail stores.

The manufacturers (or advertisers) can use the service provider'sexperts system 210 in the Consumer Purchasing Behavior Analytic system202 to calculate the probabilistic conversion rate for this particularincentive program (Step 350). The manufacturers (or advertisers) can,through an iterative process, make changes (Step 360) to the incentiveprogram 120 and re-calculate the probabilistic conversion rate until adesired conversion rate has been achieved. The manufacturers (oradvertisers) 270 submit (Step 370) the incentive program 120 and makethe incentive program 120 available to the target consumers who fit theprofile filtering conditions.

As described in FIG. 1, while the discussion thus far focuses on themanufacturers 110 creating their own incentives 120, in some instancesmanufacturers 110 and/or retailers 105 may wish to bundle their productsand create a cross-brand bundled discount offer under aninter-enterprise collaborative marketing campaign 130 and 140,respectively. An example of this is “buy 5 cans of Campbell soup and get$1 off 24-pack Coca-Cola”. As described in FIG. 1, in these situations,the manufacturer 110 or retailer 105 who initiated the joint marketingcampaign sends a request to the membership service provider 200 for ajoint marketing administrative account. As described in FIGS. 2 and 4,the membership service provider will create (Step 410) a joint marketingadministrative account and send the log-in information to the initiatingmanufacturer or retailer. The user (Step 420) of the joint marketingadministrative account will create several inter-enterprisecollaborative marketing accounts and send (Step 430) electronicinvitations to his/her business partners to join/participate in thejoint marketing campaign. The electronic invitation can be email, pager,America-On-Line (AOL) instant messaging, Short Message Service (SMS)message, or other means known by those well versed in the art. Theelectronic invitation will include, at the minimum, the log-in usernameand password for the joint marketing campaign account and a briefdescription and nature of the marketing campaign.

The business partners (Step 440) who wish to participate in the jointmarketing campaign will log-in to the membership service provider'ssystem (using the previously provided log-in account) and enter (Step450) their discount offers and the terms and conditions for thesediscounts. The terms and conditions include, but not limited to, whichconsumer groups can receive the discount and the maximum number of use.The administrative account user (Step 420) will pull all discount offersand create incentive programs that combine discount offers from variousbusiness partners (Step 440). The initiating manufacturer or retailer(Step 440) of the joint marketing campaign will upload the serviceprovider's Advertising Content database 225 with the combined productdiscounts (Step 480). For each joint incentive program, the initiatingmanufacturer or retailer (Step 420) will provide incentive program dataincluding the following: product information, price, discount level,type of discount, start date, expiration date, target consumer profilefiltering conditions, dynamic pricing instruction, maximum number ofuse, personalized advertising message, personalized content/image, andparticipating retail stores.

The initiating manufacturer or retailer (Step 420) can use the serviceprovider's experts system 210 in the Consumer Purchasing BehaviorAnalytic system 202 to calculate (Step 482) the probabilistic conversionrate for this particular joint incentive program 130 and 140. Theinitiating manufacturer or retailer (Step 420) can, through an iterativeprocess, make changes to the joint incentive program 130 and 140 andre-calculate (Step 486) the probabilistic conversion rate until adesired conversion rate has been achieved. The initiating manufactureror retailer (Step 420) submits (Step 490) the joint incentive program130 and 140 and makes the joint incentive program 130 and 140 availableto the target consumers.

As described in FIG. 2, periodically, like every few hours, the serviceprovider's Mobile Coupon Distribution application 235 retrieves theincentive programs stored in the Advertiser Content database 225 andlaunches the matching engine 215 to get a list of consumer 255 who fitthe filtering conditions. The Mobile Coupon Distribution application 235takes the generic advertising message, coupon data, and consumer profileand dynamically constructs personalized advertising messages, one foreach target consumer 255 who will receive the coupon. The Mobile CouponDistribution application 235 sends the ads to the wireless communicationdevices 250 of consumers 255 who fit the filtering conditions specifiedin the incentive program.

Upon receiving the electronic coupons on the wireless communicationdevice, like mobile phone or PDA, 250, the consumers 255 can “clip” thecoupons that he/she is interested in. “Clip” consists of using thebutton on the wireless communication device to highlight the electroniccoupon and clicking on the appropriate button to select “ACCEPT COUPON”option. An optional Mobile Cookie application 230, that resides on themobile phone, can observe how the consumers respond to the ad and sendsthis data back to the membership provider's system.

Data sent back to the membership provider's system can include the orderthat the coupons are “clipped”, the timing between “clips”, and whetherthe consumer had reviewed the details of the coupon/discount offer. TheMobile Cookie application 230 can also send the “clipped” coupons backto the membership service provider's Consumer Profile Database 220. Theconsumer can also initiate the coupon retrieval by launching the MobileCoupon Search application 245 from the wireless communication device,like mobile phone or PDA, 250. This is usually performed when theconsumer wants to search for coupons of products that are not specifiedin his/her profile.

Once the membership service provider's Consumer Profile Database 220 hasreceived the “clipped” electronic coupons that were sent by the MobileCookie application 230 from the consumers' wireless communicationdevices, like mobile phones or PDA, 250, the service provider's MobileCoupon Distribution application 235 sends the coupon information alongwith the consumers' membership identification code to the local coupondatabase servers 265 located at the participating retailers and grocerystores 264. The Mobile Coupon Distribution application 235 may also sendthe acknowledgement message to the consumers 255 at their wirelesscommunication device, like mobile phone or PDA, 250 to let them knowthat the electronic coupons can now be redeemed at the participatingstores or retailers 264.

As described in FIGS. 2 and 5, to redeem the electronic coupons, theconsumer 255 collects the items to be purchased and brings them to thecheckout counter. At the checkout counter or other Point of Sale (POS)260, the clerk enters the purchase information of the products into thecash register by either scanning the Universal Product Code (UPC) barcode or using other current entry methods. Since cash registers or POS260 are in effect computer terminals for the entry of data into thecomputers where local coupon database 265 of the participating retailersand grocery chains 264 reside, an application can be incorporated intoexisting Point of Sale (POS) systems to read the membershipidentification code on the consumer membership identification tag 550.As described in FIG. 5, after all of the purchases have been recordedinto the cash register, the clerk scans the memory storage on theconsumer's membership identification tag 550. The entry of the data onthe consumer's membership identification tag 550 activates theup-linking with the retailer or grocery chain's local coupon databaseserver 265, whereupon the validity of the consumer's membership isconfirmed.

The computerized cash register or POS 260 can batch load the bar codesof all products being purchased to the local coupon database system 265.The local coupon database system 265 then cross checks the purchasedproducts and consumer's membership identification code 550 against thelocal coupon database system 265 containing manufacturer's discounts,comparing item sizes, brands, and the like, ascertaining theavailability of a product discount. For those products that are subjectto a discount, the local coupon database system 265 itemizes thediscounts, totals the discounts and transfers the sum back to thecomputerized cash register or POS 260.

Optionally, the local coupon database system 265 can advise the consumer255, by printing on their receipt, comparable brands that would havequalified for a discount. The local coupon database system 265 can alsoadvise the cashier that the customer has chosen a wrong size product toqualify for the discount, thereby allowing for the correction to bemade. The discount total is deducted from the total bill to the consumer255. The consumer 255 then pays the total purchase price of the goods,less the discount provided by the system.

As transactions are completed, the local coupon database system 265takes the identification codes of the purchased products and, linkingthe product identification codes to consumer identification codes 550,accumulates in the database the listing of all products, which thatparticular member has purchased. The system also records the time anddate of purchases and thus builds a detailed database of member purchaseinformation. The local coupon database system 265 sends this informationto the membership service provider's Mobile Coupon RedemptionApplication 240.

Upon receiving the coupon redemption data from the retailers and grocerychains 264, the membership service provider's Mobile Coupon Redemptionapplication 240 saves this information in the Consumer Profile Database220 and sends the coupon redemption reports to advertisers andmanufacturers 270 who provided the incentive programs. The Mobile CouponRedemption application 240 can also cross-check for any cross-sell orup-sell opportunity and alerts the consumers of the special discountoffers. Upon receiving the coupon redemption data from the membershipservice provider 200, advertisers and manufacturers 270 promptly pay theretailers 264 for the value of the redeemed coupons and pay themembership service provider 200 for the services associated withdistributing and clearing redeemed coupons.

Periodically, like once a day, the service provider's ConsumerPurchasing Behavior Analytic system 202 can launch the adaptive neuralnetworks application 205, which retrieves recent purchasing data fromthe Consumer Profile database 220 and Advertising Content database 225and uses them as data points for its training, testing, and validatingdata sets. The adaptive neural networks application 205 uses thecollected data to analyze the consumer purchasing behavior andpurchasing decision process. The results will be stored in the ConsumerProfile database 220.

Today's neural networks systems that are designed to analyze consumerpurchasing behavior don't have the self-enhancing capability. When thesesystems are initially set up, they receive training, testing, andvalidating data sets that are reflective of their current environment.Their recommendations, at that time, are fairly accurate. As time goesby, the consumers' tastes, preferences, life styles, and purchasingbehaviors change. The data sets in these neural networks become staleand the recommendations provided by these systems become less accurate.Due to high cost of setting up and obtaining new data sets for thesesystems, these systems are often not replaced. Advertisers who continueto use these systems often design marketing campaigns that are, for themost part, completely ineffective.

The current invention on wireless coupon distribution and redemptionsystem collects volume of consumer purchasing behavior data on a dailybasis and, therefore, can provide the neural networks system with freshdata sets, allowing the neural networks system to keep up with changingmarket conditions and trends. This gives the system unparalleled abilityto provide accurate recommendation on marketing campaigns, which cannotbe accomplished with prior art systems.

Another key differentiator of this system over prior art systems is theamount and level of detail of the profile data being collected. Today'sadvertising campaigns use the fire-and-forget model. Advertisers don'thave a way to accurately track what happen to their ads. Advertisersdon't have the ability to observe what the consumers did with their ads.They cannot tell whether the consumers throw the ad away upon receivingit, open the ad and read the advertising message before throwing the adaway, or open the ad and read the advertising message and then save thead.

The current invention can accurately track what the consumers did withthe ad. The current invention combines the Mobile Coupon Distribution235, Mobile Coupon Redemption 240, and Mobile Cookie applications 230 toprovide a 360 degree view of the consumers' purchasing decision process.The Mobile Coupon Distribution application 235 can track which couponswere sent to the consumers' wireless communication devices, like mobilephones or PDA, 250, the advertising message, and the discount level. TheMobile Cookie application 230 can observe which coupons were “clipped”,which coupons were rejected, and the process and order of which thecoupons are “clipped” and the timing between “clippings”. The MobileCoupon Redemption application 240 can track which “clipped” coupons wereeventually redeemed. Together, these three applications provide deepinsight into the consumers' purchasing decision process that is notachievable with prior art systems.

The information in the Consumer Profile database 220 can also be used togenerate reports to participating advertisers and manufacturers 270 andretailers 264, showing consumer profiles and local buying trends. Byknowing where certain products are being sold and who is buying theseproducts, advertisers and manufacturers 270 have information as to whois buying their products and in what areas of the country certainproducts sell. Advertising costs can then be directed to either increaseconsumer awareness of a product or maintain the current rise of saleswithin a specific area. The available data also facilitates targetedmailing, thus eliminating the incredible amount of guess work which isassociated with typical coupon mailings. The merchant or manufacturercan thus initiate a “customer loyalty” program that can reward aconsumer based on that specific consumer's buying habits. The costsavings can produce higher profits and decreased consumer prices.

The data collected can also have significant value in enabling a grocerystore (or other retailer) 264 and/or advertiser and manufacturer 270 todetermine buying patterns, thereby increasing the accuracy of inventorystocking and delivery schedules. The profiling information collected onthe consumer purchasing behavior is more specific than that which can beobtained by prior art systems.

The accumulated consumer profile data, such as the specific number oftimes a given class product was purchased, or the specific number oftimes a given product within a class of products was purchased, canperiodically be downloaded. The flexibility of the database gives theretailers 264 and/or advertisers and manufacturers 270 the ability toprovide retrieve customized reports. Thus, the reports can provideinformation which is pertinent, based on the immediate requirements ofthe customer. This allows manufacturers to track the introduction of anew product, by area, in response to discounts, rebates, etc., whilestill maintaining standard surveillance over established products.

In the case of merchants or other retailers 264 who do not have thefully computerized cash registers, currently characteristic of smallmerchants, the system can be restricted to connection by a VeriFone ormicropayment device or similar connection system. The connection systemwould allow for the non-computerized merchant to connect to themembership provider's centralized computer consumer profile database 220to verify a member's eligibility.

Additionally, if applicable, there can be a determination of whetherpre-set buying discount limits, or other restrictions have been reached.The membership provider's computer will then verify or approve thetransaction to the merchant. Once a customer's eligibility has beendetermined, the merchant enters the items into the communication systemfor totaling and entry into the database. The total deduction would thenbe deducted from the consumer's total prior to payment. The datatransferred from the general merchants can include all productinformation or can be limited to the amount of the transaction or otherselected information.

The advantage of using the wireless coupon distribution and redemptionsystem is obvious. The system eliminates the printing of paper coupons,the accounting for the coupons, the handling of the coupons, the wasteassociated with less than three percent of all distributed coupons beingused, and coupon fraud. The consumers receive convenience ofalways-available targeted coupons, financial savings, and transactionefficiency. For manufacturers (or advertisers) 270, it provides greaterunderstanding of consumer purchasing behavior and more flexiblemarketing capability.

Manufacturers (or advertisers) don't have to wait for months to receivecoupon redemption data. The wireless coupon distribution and redemptioncan cut down the coupon distribution cycle from four weeks down to oneday and coupon redemption clearing cycle from eight weeks down to twodays. This allows the manufacturers to launch more incentive programswith shorter coupon life and marketing campaign cycle, allowing muchmore flexible marketing campaign. The membership service provider system200 also allows manufacturers to make immediate adjustment to promotionprograms currently underway in order to achieve the desired marketingeffect. The main benefit to grocery chains and other retailers 264 isthe reduction in time to collect money from manufacturers for the valueof the redeemed coupons.

Second Implementation

The second embodiment of the present invention focuses on using ticketpurchasing to build a Consumer Entertainment Preference Profilingsystem.

As described in FIGS. 5 and 7, the process begins with the consumers 755who join a paperless product discount membership and are provided withan individualized membership identification tag 550. The consumers 255can include people who own or user of wireless communication device,like mobile phone, personal digital assistant, and pager. As describedin FIG. 5, the membership identification tags 550 include a uniquelyidentifiable code and/or a memory storage mechanism, like a RadioFrequency Identification (RFID) or micropayment ID tag or barcode orother means known by those versed in the current art, which contains theconsumer's membership information. The tag can have adhesive material onone side such that it can be “taped” onto a credit-card size plasticcard or on the back of a wireless communication device like the mobilephone. The membership tag can also be in an electronic format like anelectronic image of a barcode that can be displayed on a wirelessdevice.

The consumers 755 provide personal profile data as a condition ofjoining the membership. The profile can include demographic data,psychographic data, life style affinity, artist affinity, team affinity,and entertainment category preference. Demographic data can includeaddress, age, gender, income, household information, number of cars,housing information, etc. Psychographic data can include hobbies, areasof interest, etc. Life style affinity can include leisure activities,entertainment preferences, etc. Team affinity can include the name ofsports teams consumers want to receive advertising messages from. Artistaffinity can include types of music the consumers had purchased in thepast, are considering buying, or want to learn more about. Consumer canprovide these data via internet, fax, Interactive Voice Response (IVR)system, web-enabled wireless communication devices like mobile phonesand personal digital assistant, or other communication means by thosewell versed in the art.

It should be noted that herein the term “profiles”, is used to indicatea database of all data stored in the consumer purchasing behaviordatabase. Further, for convenience, reference is made to sportingvenues, however any type of retail or wholesale store or service orentertainment venue can take advantage of the system. Additionally,reference is made to venue sponsors, however any ticketing company orticket distribution broker or ticket distribution company or eventpromoter or advertisers can take advantage of the system. Also, forconvenience, reference is made to mobile phones, however any type ofwireless communication device like Personal Digital Assistant (PDA),pager, or Black Berry text pager can be used to receive electronicmessages.

As described in FIG. 7, the membership provider's computer system 700can have the following components: Advertising Content database 725,Consumer Profile database 720, Consumer Purchasing Behavior Analyticsystem 702, data warehouse, matching engine 715, mobile applicationsuite 732, and Mobile Cookie application 730.

The Advertising Content database 725 can store data including thefollowing: ticket and show information, price, discount level, type ofdiscount, show times, target consumer, dynamic pricing instruction,probabilistic conversion rate, maximum number of use, personalizedadvertising message, personalized content/image, and participatingvenues. An example of dynamic pricing can include “give consumer anadditional $10 off the ticket price if consumer views the ad but doesnot purchase the ticket”.

The Consumer Profile database 720 can store data including thefollowing: demographic, psychographic, artist affinity, team affinity,life style affinity, purchasing decision process, purchased products(including music, movie, and ticket to sporting event and otherentertainment events), discount offers used (discount level, showinformation, date of use), and historical responses to targeted ads.

Consumer Purchasing Behavior Analytic system 702 can include of 1) anadaptive neural networks engine 705 to analyze the consumer purchasingbehavior and purchasing decision making process and 2) an experts system710 to calculate the probabilistic conversion rate of the specificincentive program. The adaptive neural networks engine 705 can implementan industry well-known feed-forward-back-propagation model or similarmodel well-known by those versed in the current art. The experts system710 can implement industry well-known techniques of “Reasoning UnderUncertainty” or similar model well-known by those versed in the currentart.

The matching engine 715 can use a heuristic matching technique to matchthe consumer profiles to the consumer profile filtering conditionsspecified in the incentive program provided by the venue sponsors (orevent promoters or advertisers) 764. This matching engine 715 is used bythe venue sponsors (or event promoters or advertisers) 764 to select theconsumer group 755 who can receive the discounts. An example of profilefiltering condition can include “provide this discount offer toconsumers whose ages are between 18-25, income range from$30,000-$50,000, have two cars, own a house, and bought two tickets tothe game in the last two months”.

The Mobile Cookie application 730 (see the third embodiment) can be asmall program that can be deployed onto the mobile phones. The MobileCookie application is designed to collect the consumers' responses totargeted ads and send this data back to the membership service providerfor profiling purposes. The Mobile Cookie 730 can be a program deployedin the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card of Global System for Mobilecommunications (GSM) phones or a small program on a Wideband CodeDivision Multiple Access (WCDMA) chip or a small subroutine that isembedded in the interactive mobile coupon application sent to theconsumers' wireless communication device, like mobile phone or PDA.

The mobile application suite 732 includes Mobile Ticket Distributionapplication 735, Mobile Ticket Search application 745, and Mobile TicketPurchasing 740 applications. Mobile Ticket Purchasing is a program thatis generated dynamically based on a variety of inputs including discountoffers and dynamic pricing rules.

As described in FIGS. 7 and 3, the venue sponsors (or event promoters oradvertisers) usually “deposit” the electronic tickets in advance at theTicket Distributor's system 780. Prior to the event, the venue sponsors(or event promoters or advertisers) 764 will upload the serviceprovider's Advertising Content database 725 with current discounts ontickets. For each incentive program 120, the venue sponsors (or eventpromoters or advertisers) 764 can provide incentive program dataincluding the following: show information, available seat, seatingprice, discount level, type of discount, show time, target consumerprofile filtering conditions, dynamic pricing instruction, maximumnumber of use, personalized advertising message, personalizedcontent/image, and participating venues.

The venue sponsors (or event promoters or advertisers) 764 can use theservice provider's experts system 710 in the Consumer PurchasingBehavior Analytic system 702 to calculate the probabilistic conversionrate for this particular incentive program (Step 350). The venuesponsors (or event promoters or advertisers) can, through an iterativeprocess, make changes (Step 360) to the incentive program andre-calculate the probabilistic conversion rate until a desiredconversion rate has been achieved. The venue sponsors (or eventpromoters or advertisers) 764 submit (Step 370) the incentive program120 and make the incentive program 120 available to the targetconsumers.

As described in FIGS. 1, 4 and 7, while the discussion thus far focuseson the venue sponsors or other consumer goods and services companies 110creating their own incentives, in some instances manufacturers of theconsumer goods and services 110, retailers, hospitality serviceproviders, venue sponsors (or event promoters or advertisers) ofentertainment events 105 and/or entertainment content providers 105 maywish to bundle their products and create a cross-brand bundled discountoffer under an inter-enterprise collaborative marketing campaign 130 and140. An example of this can be “buy Blue Man Group ticket at 10% off andreceive 5 free ring tones and 2 screen saver images” or “stay at Hyatthotel on Saturday and receive 10% off ticket price to Lion King show”.For ease of reference, the current invention will refer themanufacturer, retailer, hospitality service provider, venue sponsor, orentertainment content provider who initiated the joint marketingcampaign as the Initiator. In these situations, the Initiator (Step 420)sends a request to the membership service provider 200 for a jointmarketing administrative account.

The membership service provider 200 will create (Step 410) a jointmarketing administrative account and send the log-in information to theInitiator. The user (Step 420) of the joint marketing administrativeaccount will create several inter-enterprise collaborative marketingaccounts and send (Step 430) electronic invitations to his/her businesspartners to join/participate in the joint marketing campaign. Theelectronic invitation can be email, pager, America-On-Line (AOL) instantmessaging, Short Message Service (SMS) message, or other means known bythose well versed in the art. The electronic invitation will include, ata minimum, the log-in account and password for the joint marketingcampaign account and a brief description and nature of the marketingcampaign. The business partners (Step 440) who wish to participate inthe joint marketing campaign will log-in to the membership serviceprovider's system (using the previously provided log-in account) andenter (Step 450) their discount offers and the terms and conditions forthese discounts.

The terms and conditions can include, but not limited to, which consumergroups can receive the discount and the maximum number of use. TheInitiator (Step 420) will pull all discount offers and create incentiveprograms that combine discount offers from various business partners(Step 440). The Initiator (Step 420) will upload the service provider'sAdvertising Content database 725 with the combined product discounts(Step 480). For each joint incentive program 130 and 140, the Initiator(Step 420) will provide the following data: product information, price,discount level, type of discount, start date, expiration date, targetconsumer profile filtering conditions, dynamic pricing instruction,maximum number of use, personalized advertising message, personalizedcontent/image, and participating retail stores.

The Initiator (Step 420) can use the service provider's experts system710 in the Consumer Purchasing Behavior Analytic system 702 to calculate(Step 482) the probabilistic conversion rate for this particular jointincentive program 130 and 140. The Initiator (Step 420) can, through aniterative process, make changes to the joint incentive program 130 and140 and re-calculate (Step 486) the probabilistic conversion rate untila desired conversion rate has been achieved. The Initiator (Step 420)submits (Step 490) the joint incentive program 130 and 140 and makes thejoint incentive program 130 and 140 available to the target consumerswho fit the profile filtering conditions.

As described in FIG. 7, periodically, like every few hours, the serviceprovider's Mobile Ticket Distribution application 735 retrieves theincentive programs stored in the Advertiser Content database 725 andlaunches the matching engine 715 to get a list of consumer and/orconsumer group 755 who fit the filtering conditions. The Mobile TicketDistribution application 735 takes the generic advertising message, showdata, and consumer profile and dynamically constructs personalizedadvertising messages, one for each target consumer 755 who will receivethe discount. The Mobile Ticket Distribution application 735 can sendthe ads along with the Mobile Ticket Purchasing application 740 to thewireless communication device, like mobile phone or PDA, 750 of theconsumers 755 who fit the filtering conditions specified in theincentive program.

Upon receiving the electronic ad and Mobile Ticket Purchasingapplication 740 on the wireless communication device 750, the consumers755 can go through the Mobile Ticket Purchasing application and purchasethe ticket. The Mobile Ticket Purchasing application 740 uses thedynamic pricing rules specified by the venue sponsor 764 to provide aprogressive discount based upon how the consumer responded to the ad.The membership provider can optionally deploy a “Mobile Cookie”application on the mobile phone. The Mobile Cookie application 730,residing on the mobile phone 750, can observe how the consumers respondto the ad and can send this data back to the membership provider'sconsumer profile database system 720. Data sent back to the membershipprovider's consumer profile database system 720 can include whichdiscount was selected and whether the consumer had reviewed the detailsof the show and discount offer. The Mobile Cookie can also send theticket purchasing confirmation back to the membership service provider'ssystem. Upon successful completion of ticket purchase, the Mobile TicketPurchasing application 740 clears the tickets with the ticketdistributors.

The Mobile Ticket Purchasing can be a full menu-driven application orone-way text-messaging application, based on the technologicalcapability of the wireless device. In the case of a full menu-drivenapplication, the consumers go through the application and interactdirectly with the automated system to purchase the ticket. In the caseof one-way text-messaging application scenario, it is conceivable thatthe membership service provider sends a text message to the consumers'wireless devices with the show information, contact phone numbers,and/or instruction on how to purchase the ticket via text messaging. Inthis scenario, the consumers can purchase the ticket by either callingthe ticketing agent directly at the phone number provided or requestingthe ticketing agent to call the consumer by responding to the textmessage per the instruction provided in the advertising text message.

The consumer 755 can also initiate the discount and show/event search bylaunching the Mobile Ticket Search application 745 from the wirelessdevice, like mobile phone or PDA, 750. This is usually performed whenthe consumer wants to search for shows that are not specified in his/herprofile. The Mobile Ticket Search application can be either a fullmenu-driven application or one-way text-messaging application, based onthe technological capability of the wireless device. In the case of afull menu-driven application, the consumers go through the applicationand interact directly with the automated system to purchase the ticket.

In the case of one-way text-messaging application scenario, it isconceivable that when the consumers initiate the ticket search requestthe membership service provider sends a text message to the consumers'wireless devices with the show information, contact phone numbers,and/or instruction on how to purchase the ticket via text messaging. Inthis scenario, the consumers can purchase the ticket by either callingthe ticketing agent directly at the phone number provided or requestingthe ticketing agent to call the consumer by responding to the textmessage per the instruction provided in the advertising text message.

Once the membership service provider's system 720 has received theticket purchasing confirmation that was sent by the Mobile Cookieapplication 730 from the consumers' phones 750, the service provider'sMobile Ticket Distribution application 735 sends the ticket informationalong with the consumers' membership ID to the local ticketing databaseservers 765 located at the venues sponsor 764. It is conceivable thatsome venue sponsors will not deploy a local ticket database server andwill use a remote server of a ticketing agency like Ticketmaster. TheMobile Ticket Distribution application 735 can optionally send theacknowledgement message to the consumers' wireless communicationdevices, like the mobile phone or PDA, 750 to let them know that theelectronic ticket can now be redeemed at the participating venuessponsors 764.

The membership service provider's Mobile Ticket Distribution application735 saves this information in the Consumer Profile database 720 andsends the ticket purchasing reports to ticket distributors (or eventpromoters or advertisers) 780. The Mobile Ticket Distributionapplication 735 can also cross-check for any cross-sell or up-sellopportunity and alerts the consumers 755 of the special discount offers.Note that the acknowledgement can be a simple text message or anelectronic image of a barcode that can be read by an image barcodereader. The confirmation acknowledgement can be uniquely generated forevery consumer in such a way that it cannot easily be duplicated. Thisapproach will be implemented to prevent fraudulent ticket pick up at thewill call booth or the gate.

Upon receiving the ticket purchasing data from the membership serviceprovider's Mobile Ticket Distribution application 735, the venuesponsors 764 promptly pays the membership service provider for theservices associated with selling the tickets.

To pick up the electronic ticket, the consumer 755 can go to the willcall booth 768 and ask for a hard-printed ticket. This ticket will havea barcode, allowing for easy access at the gate. Alternatively, theconsumer can go directly to the gate and use the membershipidentification tag and other consumer ID codes 550 and/or confirmationacknowledgement message (which consists of a simple text message/code oran electronic image of a barcode) and/or micropayment ID tag toauthorize the release of the electronic ticket.

At the gate, an access control staff like a security personnel scans thebar code on the hard-printed ticket, scans the barcode and/or RFID onmembership ID tag, or scans the electronic image of the barcodeacknowledgement, or micropayment ID tag or punches in the confirmationacknowledgement code and/or other consumer identification codes 550.Since scanners 760 are in effect computer terminals for the entry ofdata into the computers local ticketing database 765 of theparticipating venues sponsors 764, an application can be incorporatedinto existing scanners 760 to read the membership ID on the consumermembership ID tag, the electronic acknowledgement code (both electronicbarcode image or text confirmation code), barcode on the hard-printedticket, or the consumer ID code 550.

The entry of the data on the consumer's membership ID tag or barcode onthe hard-printed ticket or electronic acknowledgement (both electronicbarcode image or text confirmation code) activates the up-linking withthe venue sponsors' ticketing database server having the local ticketingdatabase 765, whereupon the validity of the consumer's membership and/orticket information is confirmed. Upon successful validation, theconsumer is authorized to enter the venue.

Season ticket holders can also use this system to enter the event venueswithout bringing printed paper tickets. In this scenario, the ticket hadalready been purchased and the consumers just leverage the electronicticket release system to pick up their tickets. To take advantage ofthis system, a strong authentication mechanism is required for thisscenario. The authentication mechanism can be accomplished by either 1)sending a different image of a barcode to the consumers' wireless devicefor each event and having the image scanner, located at the event venue,read the barcode image. Under this approach, the barcode is specific tothat event and a different barcode will be sent to the wireless devicefor the next event; 2) sending a different text confirmation code to theconsumers' wireless device for each event and having the agents at thegate enter the confirmation code.

Under this approach, the confirmation code is specific to that event anda different confirmation code will be sent to the wireless device forthe next event; or 3) sending the code currently stored on theread-write RFID to the venue and having the RFID reader at the venue“read” the RFID code stored in the membership ID tag. Under the thirdapproach, the RFID reader will not only read the code stored in the RFIDbut also write back to the RFID tag with a new code. Prior to the event,the membership provider sends to the venue sponsor's system the codecurrently stored in the individual consumer's RFID tag and the new codeto be written to the RFID tag, replacing the current code. When theconsumer enters the venue, the consumer presents the RFID tag to theagent and the agent scans the RFID tag.

The RFID scanner “reads” the RFID code and verifies the RFID codecurrently stored in the RFID tag, matching it against the RFID listreceived from the membership provider. Upon successful verification, thescanner writes the new code received from the membership provider forthat individual consumer to the consumers' RFID tag and authorizes therelease of the ticket, allowing the consumer to enter the venue. At thenext event, that new code will be used to authenticate the consumer'selectronic ticket and authorize the release of the electronic ticket forthat next event. Also, another code will be written to the RFID tag,replacing the new code, for the purpose of authentication for thefollowing event. It is conceivable that the membership provider does notsend the new code to the venue sponsor's system. In this case, the venuesponsor's system will generate the new code, encode the RFID tag withthe new code, and send the new codes to the membership provider.

Periodically, like once a day, the service provider's ConsumerPurchasing Behavior Analytic system 702 launches the adaptive neuralnetworks application 705, which retrieves recent ticket purchasing datafrom the Consumer Profile database 720 and uses them as data points forits training, testing, and validating data sets. The neural networksapplication 705 uses the data points to analyze the consumer purchasingbehavior and purchasing decision process. The results will be stored inthe Consumer Profile database 720.

Today's neural networks systems that are designed to analyze consumerpurchasing behavior don't have the self-enhancing capability. When thesesystems are initially set up, they receive training, testing, andvalidating data sets that are reflective of their current environment.Their recommendations, at that time, are fairly accurate. As time goesby, the consumers' tastes, preferences, life styles, and purchasingbehaviors change. The data sets in these neural networks become staleand the recommendations provided by these systems become less accurate.Due to high cost of setting up and obtaining new data sets for thesesystems, these systems are often not replaced. Advertisers who continueto use these systems often design marketing campaigns that are, for themost part, completely ineffective.

The current invention on wireless ticket distribution and redemptionsystem collects a volume of consumer purchasing behavior data on a dailybasis and, therefore, can provide the neural networks system with freshdata sets, allowing the neural networks system to keep up with changingmarket conditions and trends. This gives the system unparalleled abilityto provide accurate recommendation on marketing campaigns, which cannotbe accomplished with prior art systems.

Another key differentiator of this system over prior art systems is theamount and level of detail of the profile data being collected. Today'sadvertising campaigns use the fire-and-forget model. Advertisers don'thave a way to accurately track what happens to their ads. Advertisersdon't have the ability to observe what the consumers did with their ads.They cannot tell whether the consumers throw the ad away upon receivingit, open the ad and read the advertising message before throwing the adaway, or open the ad and read the advertising message and then save thead.

The current invention can accurately track what the consumers did withthe ad. The current invention combines the Mobile Ticket Distribution735 and Mobile Cookie 730 applications to provide a 360 degree view ofthe consumers' purchasing decision process. The Mobile TicketDistribution application 735 tracks which show information were sent tothe consumers, the advertising message, and the discount level. TheMobile Cookie application 730 observes which discounts were used andwhich discounts were rejected. Together, these two applications providedeep insight into the consumers' purchasing decision process that is notachievable with prior art systems.

The advantage of using the wireless ticket distribution and redemptionsystem is obvious. The system eliminates the printing and distributionof paper tickets, which enable tickets to be sold up to the start of theshow. The system also enables discrete discounting of ticket price.Additionally, by using the consumer purchasing behavior to providepersonalized discount and advertising messages, the venue sponsorsincrease the odds of selling potentially unsold tickets up to the lastminute. This can not be accomplished with prior arts. The consumersreceive convenience of always-available tickets, financial savings, andtransaction efficiency. For venue sponsors, it provides greaterunderstanding of consumer purchasing behavior, more flexible marketingcapability, and revenue recovery from potentially unsold tickets. Thisalso allows the venue sponsors to launch more personalized incentiveprograms, which maximize profit margins. The system also allows venuesponsors to make immediate adjustment to promotion programs currentlyunderway in order to achieve the desired marketing effect.

Third Implementation

In wireless mobile commerce, certain conceivable requirements demand thecapability to control and monitor behaviors of the handset subscriberespecially those that can be captured by the user interface of thehandset. The challenge in addressing these requirements mainly lies inthe area of finding a cost effective solution given the environment ofthe wireless consumer market.

From an advertiser's perspective, it is advantageous to have the abilityto display an ad on the consumers' wireless communication deviceswithout requiring the consumer to initiate the ad viewing process and toobserve in real-time the consumers' responses to the targeted ads. Fromthe consumer's perspective, it is imperative that the ad notification isnot intrusive. In other words, the ad should not arrive when theconsumer is using the phone; and if the ad arrives when the consumer isusing the phone, the ad should not be displayed until after the consumerhangs up.

The present invention describes a solution that displays advertisingmessages in a non-intrusive manner and provides immediate feedback toadvertisers on the consumers' responses advertising messages. Althoughthe terms used in this solution are specific to GSM cellularinfrastructure platform, the general concept can be applied to otherwireless platforms such as Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), CodeDivision Multiple Access (CDMA), WCDMA, and Smart Phones.

As described in FIG. 8, the process begins with the membership serviceprovider 830 deploying a Mobile Cookie application 848 (usuallyrelatively small) that can reside on the Subscriber Identity Module(SIM) card 872 of a GSM phone 870. For convenience, this document willrefer to this small SIM card based application as the Mobile Cookieapplication 848. However, similar process applies to other non-GSMmobile phones. The Mobile Cookie application 848 is used to manage allcommunications between the mobile phone 870 and the membership serviceprovider's system 830. The Mobile Cookie application 848 can be deployedusing Over The Air (OTA) provisioning technique. The detail of thisprocess is apparent to those well versed in the art.

Once deployed on the SIM card 872, the Mobile Cookie application 848will register with the mobile phone's operating system (or other mobileequipment) 878 and request the operating system 878 to forward allmessages with specific headers and/or message types to the Mobile Cookieapplication 848.

When an ad sent by the membership service provider 830 arrives at theconsumer's mobile phone 870, the mobile phone's operating system (orother mobile equipment) 878 recognizes that this message is intended forthe Mobile Cookie application 848 and forwards the ad to the MobileCookie application 848. The Mobile Cookie application 848 checks if theconsumer is using the mobile phone 870 and launches the MobileAdvertising application 850 if the consumer is not using the mobilephone 870. The Mobile Advertising application 850 checks the ad messageand determines which technology 864 (Short Message Service (SMS),Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), Java 2 Platform Micro Edition(J2ME), Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW), WirelessApplication Protocol (WAP), or Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Push)was used to send the ad and the instruction 866 for retrieving anddisplaying the ad. The Mobile Advertising application follows theinstruction 860 and displays the ad. Below is a detailed example of howthe Mobile Advertising application 850 uses the instruction 860 todisplay the advertising message. The example uses WAP technology.However, the same process applies to other technologies, including SMS,MMS, J2ME, BREW, WAP Push, and other technologies that will becomeavailable in the future.

This solution focuses primarily on utilizing the two key features onexisting mobile units including the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) andWAP browser, although the solution can apply to other technologies suchas SMS, MMS, J2ME, and BREW. Incorporating the SIM in this solutionprovides certain capabilities that would otherwise be consideredrelatively intrusive, impractical, and/or costly to implement.

There are many advantages in utilizing the WAP browser technology todisplay ads on the mobile phone, including graphical capability,standardized technology, advanced user interface, market penetration ofmobile phones supporting WAP, and more.

Under normal circumstance, the WAP browser can only be launched by auser initiated command. In this solution, the WAP browser shall belaunched without the user having to initiate the sequence of opening it.In response, certain events such as the standard mobile phone key padcan be monitored, logged, and sent back to the application server.

In this application, a typical sequence of interaction is as followed:

An advertiser 820 logs in to a secured and restricted web-basedapplication 840 (advertising content database) via a browser or acustomized client program to upload an ad and select a targeted consumergroup for distribution.

The matching engine 842 uses a heuristic matching technique to match theconsumers' profiles of the Consumer Profile database 844 to thefiltering conditions specified in the incentive program 826 provided bythe advertiser 820 and forwards the ads and list of mobile phone numberof the mobile phone 870 of the consumers whose profiles fit thefiltering conditions specified in the ads to the Mobile Ads Distributionapplication 846.

The Mobile Ads Distribution application 846 composes a SMS message 862with a specific Wireless Application Protocol Uniform Resource Locator(WAP URL) uniquely assigned to every ad in the distribution queue andrequests the SMS gateway component 852 to send the SMS message 862 toevery phone number associated with the respective distribution list.

The SMS message 862 sent in step 3 must have the protocol identifier=SIMdata download, and data coding scheme=class 2 message. Refer to thirdGeneration Partnership Project (3GPP) 31.111 for reference. The SMSmessage 862 shall utilizes the Short Message Service/Point-to-Point (SMSPP) service (GSM 04.11) on the Stand-alone Dedicated Control CHannel(SDCCH) or Slow Associated Control CHannel (SACCH).

The SMS gateway component 852 shall use the service of a third-party“SMS Center” 868 to forward the SMS message 862 to a cellular networkfor transmission. Utilizing a “SMS Center” maximizes distributioncoverage since it typically is connected to different cellular providernetworks. The “SMS Center” 868 sends the SMS message transmissionrequest to various networks depending on the mobile phone's wirelesscarriers. Once in the queue of a wireless network, the transmission ofthe SMS message 862 follows the same routine of typical SMS service.

When the SMS message is received by the mobile equipment 878, it isimmediately forwarded to the Mobile Cookie application 848 since it hasbeen identified as a SIM data download message. Note that the termmobile equipment 878 is used to identify the part of the mobile phone870 minus the SIM card 872.

Prior to receiving the SMS data download indication from the mobileequipment 878, the Mobile Cookie application 848 must register with themobile equipment 878 regarding notification in the case of such an event(e.g. the service “data download via SMS-PP” must be allocated andactivated in the SIM Service Table). See 3GPP 31.111. Once the MobileCookie application 848 received the SMS data download message 862, itshall acknowledge the mobile equipment 878 following the procedurespecified in 3GPP 31.111.

Inside the SMS message 862 received by the Mobile Cookie application 848is a sequence of bytes describing the URL of the ad to be retrieved. TheMobile Cookie application 848 shall request a browser inside abrowser-enabled mobile equipment 878 to interpret the contentcorresponding to that URL via the LAUNCH BROWSER command (see 3GPP31.111).

If the mobile equipment 878 does not reject the LAUNCH BROWSER request,a WAP browser is launched to retrieve the content of the given URL. Ifthe mobile phone 870 is a flip phone, the display module is likely to bedisabled, thus causing the mobile equipment 878 to reject the LAUNCHBROWSER request. If the ad message is time sensitive, the Mobile Cookieapplication 848 can launch a request to the mobile equipment 878 to“wake up” by causing the mobile phone 870 to ring or vibrate to let theconsumer knows that an urgent ad message has arrived. It is conceivablein a Mobile Cookie application design that certain mobile equipment 878events such as any key pressed (e.g. Dual Tone Multi Frequency (DTMF))is used as a secondary trigger to initiate the LAUNCH BROWSER requestafter the URL has been retrieved.

The WAP Gateway on the cellular carrier network is contacted by themobile phone 870 to get the content of the URL. The WAP Gateway directsthe URL request to the Mobile Ads Distribution application 846. Bydesign, the Mobile Ads Distribution application 846 is also a webservice component on the “Application Server” which terminates the URLrequest from the WAP Gateway,

The Mobile Ads Distribution application 846 shall have communication tothe distribution component to obtain the ad information in the queue.Once the ad content is obtained, the Mobile Ads Distribution application846 responds to the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) request with aWireless Markup Language (WML) page containing the ad content.

The WAP Gateway receives the response from the URL request it made andreturns the WML content to the mobile phone 870 requesting the page.Once the mobile phone 870 receives the complete WML page, the ad isdisplayed on the mobile phone's screen through a WAP browser. At thispoint, the subscriber shall see the ad displayed on the mobile phone870. After the Mobile Cookie application 848 successfully requested theactivation of the mobile equipment browser, it shall poll for the log aspecified number of Dual Tone Multi Frequency (DTMF) or soft-key events.

Once a timer expires or the number of events to be logged has beenreached, the Mobile Cookie application 848 shall compose an SMS messagecontaining an email like address, ad identification and the loggedevents and request the mobile equipment 878 to send the SMS message to aspecial dedicated number identifying the email server supported by thenetwork. The transaction between the mobile phone 870 and the networkstarts out as an SMS PP transaction. It is then transformed into anemail message by the email gateway on the cellular network. Finally, theemail is sent through the internet to the Mobile Cookie Interface 858.The collection of emails gathered at the Mobile Cookie Interfaceapplication 858 is stored in the Consumer Profile database for datamining and analysis by the membership service provider 830.

The steps above describe the process of using the SIM card applicationas a Mobile Cookie. The process describes how the Mobile Cookieapplication works with a WAP application. The Mobile Cookie can use thesame process for other technologies such as SMS, MMS, J2ME, BREW, WAPPush to provide non-intrusive ad viewing experience to the consumers andcollect detailed consumer's responses to ad messages and discountoffers. While the process above mentions the use of a SIM card on a GSMphone, the Mobile Cookie can also be a program written into a CDMA chipor residing at or right above the CDMA operating system that serves thesame purpose. The latter approach is similar to deploying an applet inthe browser environment. The current invention focuses on designing anddeploying “applets” on wireless devices that can be used to monitorconsumers' responses to advertising messages. Similarly, the MobileCookie can also be a program that resides at or right on top of the TDMAoperating system and Smart Phone operating system.

From the foregoing it will be appreciated that, although specificembodiments of the invention have been described herein for purposes ofillustration, various modifications may be made without deviating fromthe spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is notlimited except as by the appended claims.

1.-71. (canceled)
 72. For use with a server system comprising (i) aconsumer profile database for storing consumer information comprising,for each consumer, an identifier associated with the consumer andinformation corresponding to at least one electronic coupon associatedwith the consumer, the electronic coupon comprising identification of aproduct or service and an amount by which a purchase price is reduced,(ii) an authentication system for authenticating consumer identifiers,and (iii) a redemption module for sending, following successfulauthentication of a consumer, information required for redemption ofelectronic coupons for which an authenticated consumer is eligible, and(ii) following completion of the transaction, sending datarepresentative of the redemption to a server responsible for recordingredemption data, a payment-processing device comprising: circuitry forentering identification codes for product and/or services; circuitry foraccepting a payment; circuitry for connecting to the server system andverifying, with the server system, a consumer's eligibility; andcircuitry for receiving, from the server system, information requiredfor redemption of at least one electronic coupon for which the consumeris eligible.
 73. The payment-processing device of claim 72, wherein thecircuitry for accepting a payment is further configured to applydiscounts associated with the at least one electronic coupon to pricesassociated with the entered identification codes.
 74. Thepayment-processing device of claim 73, further comprising circuitry forcross-checking the entered identification codes and a consumer'smembership identifier against a local coupon database system specifyingthe discounts.
 75. For use with a server system comprising (i) aconsumer profile database for storing consumer information comprising,for each consumer, an identifier associated with the consumer andinformation corresponding to at least one discount authorizationassociated with the consumer, the discount comprising identification ofa product or service and an amount by which a purchase price is reduced,(ii) an authentication system for authenticating consumer identifiers,and (iii) a redemption module for sending, following successfulauthentication of a consumer, information required for redemption of atleast one electronic coupon, and (ii) following completion of thetransaction, sending data representative of the redemption to a serverresponsible for recording redemption data, a payment-processing devicecomprising: circuitry for receiving entry of a consumer identifier;circuitry for accepting a payment; circuitry for connecting to theserver system and transmitting thereto the consumer identifier foreligibility verification; and circuitry for receiving, from the serversystem, information required for redemption of at least one electroniccoupon for which the consumer is eligible.
 76. The payment-processingdevice of claim 75, wherein the circuitry for accepting a payment isfurther configured to apply authorized discounts to prices associatedwith entered product or service identification codes.
 77. Thepayment-processing device of claim 76, further comprising circuitry forcross-checking the entered identification codes and a consumer'smembership identifier against a local coupon database system specifyingthe discounts.
 78. For use with a server system comprising a consumerprofile database for storing consumer information, an authenticationmodule for verifying the consumer's eligibility for a discount, and aredemption module for sending the discount for which the consumer iseligible, a payment-processing device, comprising: circuitry forentering product identification codes for products and/or services;circuitry for accepting a payment; circuitry for accepting consumerinformation comprising (i) an identifier associated with a consumer and,(ii) if the consumer is eligible for a discount, informationcorresponding thereto; and circuitry for connecting to the server systemand verifying, with the server system, the consumer's eligibility forthe discount, wherein the identifier associated with the consumer isnon-redeemable for a discount.
 79. For use with a server systemcomprising a consumer profile database for storing consumer information,an authentication module for verifying the consumer's eligibility for adiscount, and a redemption module for sending the discount for which theconsumer is eligible, a payment-processing device, comprising: circuitryfor entering a transaction amount; circuitry for accepting a payment;circuitry for accepting consumer information comprising (i) anidentifier associated with a consumer and, (ii) if the consumer iseligible for a discount, information corresponding thereto; andcircuitry for connecting to the server system and verifying, with theserver system, the consumer's eligibility for the discount, wherein theidentifier associated with the consumer is non-redeemable for adiscount.